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Book examines Reagan's role in ending Cold War

Savannah Morning News

"The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War"

Two of the most memorable political speeches in the 20th century were delivered in West Berlin by two American presidents. One was John F. Kennedy's in 1963, in which he concluded with "Ich bin ein Berliner." The other was Ronald Reagan's speech in Berlin in 1987.

Reagan had the reputation of a hawk in dealing with the Soviet Union in his first term. Some Democrats in the early 1980s considered Reagan provocative to the point that former Vice President Walter Mondale, who would be the Democratic challenger to Reagan in 1984, made a speech in which he warned that the Reagan administration had increased the "risk of nuclear war." Mondale said, "It's three minutes to midnight and we are scarcely talking to the Soviets at all."

(Reagan had gone briefly to West Berlin in 1982, where he was denounced by an anti-nuclear crowd, which ended up in a riot. He wouldn't come back until 1987.)

In 1987, a White House speech writer prepared a draft that was a bold challenge to new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of political openness.

Many more drafts appeared in the White House, the State Department and elsewhere. One version from the White House had Reagan, Kennedy-like, say in German that the Berlin Wall behind must be destroyed.

That was changed slightly in the ultimate draft. It had Reagan say, with the wall behind him, and in English, "General Secretary Gorbavech if you seek peace. ... Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev ... open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

James Mann develops that episode and many others in great detail. It is easy, enjoyable reading. It's part journalism, part scholarship, Mann has been a newspaper Washington correspondent and foreign correspondent for some 30 years and now is Author in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

Some Americans have debated Reagan's role in the ending of the Cold War, arguing that it was Gorbachev who brought about its end, not Reagan. But Mann says that in his second term Reagan's policies "gave Gorbachev enough time, latitude and prestige to proceed with his reforms, to the point where they could no longer be undone."

Mann agrees to a point, saying that "Unquestionably, Gorbachev played the leading role in bringing the four-decade-old conflict to a close. Yet Reagan, overcoming considerable opposition of his own at home, played a crucial role by buttressing Gorbachev's political position."

The cast of characters in this book is a long one. Among the familiar pro-Reagan Americans here from the 1980s include Howard Baker, James Baker, William Buckley, George H.W. Bush, Robert Gates, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Colin Powell, Nancy Reagan, Brent Scowcroft and George Shultz.

And then there is Suzanne Massie, a little-known author with a deep interest in Russia. Mann says she "is not an established Soviet scholar" but "made a bigger impression upon (Reagan) than the reporting and analysis of the Central Intelligence Agency." Mann devotes eight chapters to her and the close friendship with the president that developed. (She was "no Monica Lewinsky," Mann makes clear.)

Mann's last words: "By recognizing Gorbachev's significance, when many others in the United States did not, Reagan helped create the climate in which the Cold War could end." He couldn't have done it alone.

Theo Lippman Jr. is a former reporter for the Savannah Morning News.

"The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War"